And Then I Had a Meltdown

 Family Home Evening is not always a weekly event at Casa Konold.  We try, we really do, but it's just so haaard to get three little boys to sit still, and I'm just so laaazy.  I don't always feel like fighting them.  And besides, we do something together as a family pretty much every week, so that counts, right?  Right?

Let me describe a typical FHE around these parts.  While we're eating dinner on Monday evening I'll suddenly realize that, Shoot, it's Monday evening.  So I'll grab the Friend Magazine and pick a story that I hope might hold the boys' attention for more than a nano-second.  After dinner the big kids and I will sit down and try to read from the Book of Mormon if we didn't do it before school, while Adam and Drew climb all over us, laughing at how funny they are because they can climb onto our heads.  Carter decides that he would rather climb and laugh than sit and listen, so he joins the twins at his earliest opportunity.  Then I kind of shout the Friend story over the rumpus and hope that somebody learns something.  All the while, Haley sits next to me with her arms folded and answers all of the questions and acts super interested as compensation for me completely losing the boys' attention the second we sat down.  I try to make it interesting, but honestly, the whole fiasco is over in about 10 minutes and I'm relieved to check off FHE for another week.

So.  A couple of weekends ago, I don't know what was going on at our house but all six of us were in the worst moods we've ever been in.  All at the same time.  It was awful.  So when Monday evening rolled around, I was determined to hold a proper FHE because it seemed like just what we needed to break us out of our collective funk.  Boy was I wrong.  The evening went something like this:

Me, still in my horrible mood and feigning excitement:  Who wants to choose the song?
 [Silence from Haley and Carter, who are slouched down on the couch with their arms folded across their chests in defiance.  Adam & Drew are sitting on the coffee table and fighting over a toy.]
 Me:  Carter, do you want to pick a song?
Carter:  No.
Me: Haley, will you please just choose a song?
Haley: No.  OK fine - I want the one we learned in Primary.
Me:  OK, but I don't know that one.  Can you start us out?
Haley: But I don't waaant to sing by myself!
Carter: This is so boooring!
[Adam & Drew are fighting even more loudly and are starting to hit]

So this went on for a couple of minutes, and then I had a meltdown.  I was irritated and angry, and I felt like not having FHE at all would be better than having an FHE where we all sat around and fought for 10 minutes.  So I did something very mature.  I threw my books on the table and said, "Fine!  No Family Home Evening tonight!  Everybody get your pajamas on!"  Then I stuffed one twin under each arm like footballs and stormed upstairs to put them to bed.  Haley called, "No!  I'm sorry!  I'll sing!"  and she quickly started singing the song she'd learned in Primary that week.  But I was still fuming so I said, "No!  It's too late - you guys blew it!"

After I'd put the twins to bed and had cooled off a little, I went back downstairs to find out why Haley was not getting her pajamas on.  I found her sitting on the couch with the Friend Magazine open on her lap.  I said, "Come on Haley, it's time for bed."  And then she said,

 "I can't yet.  I'm having Haley Home Evening."

And then I smiled, and that was what finally broke my bad mood.  It was my Haley.